Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco no longer celebrates Mass in the cathedral of Genoa, Italy, with assistance from altar boys or deacons, not since the death threats began after he spoke out against government plans to legalize same-sex unions.

Bagnasco, recently appointed head of Italy's Conference of Bishops, stirred controversy last month when the group issued a statement directed at Catholic lawmakers, reminding them of their moral obligation to oppose the move toward mainstreaming homosexuality. In the statement, Bagnasco made a "slippery-slope" case for what could go wrong in Italian society if the Church's moral position was not upheld.

"Why say 'No' to forms of legally recognized cohabitation which create alternatives to the family? Why say 'No' to incest? Why say 'No' to the pedophile party in Holland? He asked. Following the comments, threatening messages "Shame on you, Bagnasco" and "Death to Bagnasco" signed with the five-pointed star of the Red Brigades terror group were painted on the walls in the city, including those of the cathedral.

The Red Brigades, very active in the 1970s, have assassinated several senior Italian public figures in recent years. Fifteen alleged members of the communist organization's members were arrested and jailed three months ago, reported the Glasgow Sunday Herald. While police do not presently believe the bullet's sender is affiliated with any terrorist group, they've taken no chances.

Ironically, in the battle that is pitting religious and secular views of morality against each other, taxpayer-funded policeman are now standing in for altar boys during Catholicism's most sacred ritual.

The protest was the third this month to be organised by supporters of Turkey's secular constitution, who object to Islamist Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. An opposition boycott in the first round led to Mr Gul failing to win a majority and the vote being annulled.

The row over the presidency has exposed deep divisions in Turkey. The army, which has long regarded itself as the guardian of the country's secular constitution, has voiced its opposition to Mr Gul's candidacy. It believes Mr Gul has an Islamist agenda, an allegation he denies. He has pledged to adhere to the republic's secular principles if he were elected.

Mr Gul's promise was not enough, however, to stop further protests by tens of thousands of secular Turks against his candidacy in the towns of Manisa and Canakkale on Saturday. Earlier demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul drew more than a million.

The term of the current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, finishes on 16 May.

Benedict XVI met with prelates from a bishops' conference based in Belgrade and reminded them that Christ wanted his Church to be open to everyone. The Pope said that today during an audience with prelates from the International Episcopal Conference of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. The bishops were in Rome for their five-yearly visit. The conference includes Catholics of Latin and Byzantine rite from Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.

The [Pontiff] said: "The various countries and the various social and religious environments in which your faithful live bring no small number of repercussions to their Christian life." The Pontiff mentioned specifically questions such as "marriages between people of different confessions or religions which require particular spiritual attention and a more harmonious cooperation with other Christian Churches, the religious education of the new generations," and "the formation of sacred ministers and their spiritual accompaniment in a multiconfessional environment."

He said: "It is important to help seminarians" and for priests "to cultivate an intimate relationship with Jesus if they wish to accomplish their mission to the full and not just see themselves as simple 'employees' of an ecclesiastical organization. The priest is at the complete service of the Church, a living and spiritual organism that draws her energy not from nationalistic, ethnic or political factors, but from the action of Christ present in her ministers."

Benedict XVI recalled that Christ founded a universal Church: "Over the course of the centuries, tradition maintained [the Church's] universalistic character unaltered as she slowly spread and came into contact with different languages, races, nationalities and cultures."

The Pope thus encouraged the bishops "to be an evangelical 'leavening' that ferments society" and to seek to involve "all members of the People of God, using all available tools of Christian formation, translated into the various languages of the people."

"Providence placed your peoples on a European continent that, over these years, has been undergoing a process of reconstruction," Benedict XVI said. "Your Churches also consider themselves as part of this historical process, well knowing that they have their own specific contribution to make.

"Unfortunately there is no lack of obstacles: the scarcity of means because of the economic situation, and the paucity of Catholic forces. Nor is it easy to forget the difficult heritage of 40 years of" communism "that gave rise to forms of social behavior not conducive to freedom and personal responsibility. At the same time, it is difficult to resist the temptation of Western materialism."

"Do not lose heart!" the Pope urged the bishops.

He told the prelates that the Lord "has put you in close contact with our Orthodox brethren. As limbs of the one Body, seek all possible forms of collaboration in the service of the one Kingdom of God. "Do not be unwilling to collaborate with other Christian confessions and with all people of good will in order to promote everything that may help propagate the values of the Gospel."

As a horrifying video of the stoning went out on the Internet, the British arm of Amnesty International condemned the death of Du'a Khalil Aswad as "an abhorrent murder" and demanded that her killers be brought to justice.
Reports from Iraq said a local security force witnessed the incident, but did nothing to try to stop it. Now her boyfriend is in hiding in fear for his life.

Miss Aswad, a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, was condemned to death as an "honour killing" by other men in her family and hardline religious leaders because of her relationship with the Sunni Muslim boy.

A large crowd watched as eight or nine men stormed the house and dragged Miss Aswad into the street. There they hurled stones at her for half an hour until she was dead. The stoning happened last month, but only came to light yesterday with the release of the Internet video. It is feared her death has already triggered a retaliatory attack. Last week 23 Yezidi workmen were forced off a bus travelling from Mosulto Bashika by a group of Sunni gunmen and summarily shot dead.

An Amnesty International spokesman in London said they receive frequent reports of honour crimes from Iraq ? particularly in the predominantly Kurdish north. Most victims are women and girls who are considered by male relatives to have shamed their families by immoral behaviour.

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a veteran California teacher whose school officials ordered him to remove several banners carrying slogans from American history, such as "In God We Trust." "Unfortunately, it seems like religion is now treated as a disease or pathogen that has to be removed or eradicated from the public at all costs," said Robert Muise, of the Thomas More Law Center, which is bringing the action against Poway Unified School District.

The superintendent, Donald Phillips, justified the sudden removal of banners that had been used for 25 years by Westview High math teacher Brad Johnson. "The fact that we've been doing something inappropriate for a long period of time doesn't make it right," Phillips said. "As we become a more diverse society, we must have a greater sensitivity."

The federal civil rights lawsuit alleges a violation of Johnson's constitutional rights in the order by school officials to remove the banners not because they contributed to any disruption, but because they promote a "Judeo-Christian" viewpoint.

Johnson, a 30-year teacher, had used them almost since the beginning of his career without opposition. They include the national motto, "In God We Trust;" a 1954 amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance, "One Nation Under God;" and an excerpt from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, "All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their Creator." The words "God" and "Creator" triggered the reaction from school officials.

Not only was the action viewpoint discrimination, but it conveyed a "government-sponsored message of disapproval of and hostility toward religion," a violation of both U.S. and California Constitutions, the lawsuit said. "It is without question that religious people founded this nation," said Muise. "As a result, references to God are common in our songs, mottoes, and slogans. And it is the responsibility of our nation's public schools to educate students to be informed citizens."

Christians in Nigeria, who make up about half the population, are expressing fears Islamic law already being enforced in northern states will expand nationwide with the inauguration this month of a new "devout Muslim" president, according to a report from the Voice of the Martyrs. Musa Yar' Adua was governor of Katsina state in northern Nigeria, where he and nearly a dozen other governors over recent years have imposed Islamic religious law as the law of the government, officials said.

As a result, Christians have lost basic rights such as having a location to meet and meeting there, officials have confirmed. Nearly 1,000 homes of Christians and many churches have been destroyed in those regions, and documentation of Islamic law is everywhere. "If you go around villages, you will see people missing one hand or one foot," explained Rev. Obiora Ike. "Do you think that's the result of an illness? That is the result of sharia law."

"Based on statistics, there is a 70-to-80 percent chance that a [Christian] child will abandon the church and their faith in a public school career," Moore told WND. The bottom line, then, is Christian parents need to lobby their pastors, pastors need to lobby their denominations, and their denominations need to start programs creating and operating public schools.

"There are many denominations that no longer hold the Bible as the inerrant teaching of God," he said. "They're not going to see this need. The public school is their religion."

There are some changes brightening the horizon. Christian schools are growing up to 5 percent a year, homeschooling is growing at rates up to 15 percent, he said.

A board member for Equality California has come out swinging at the Bible-based Capitol Resource Institute, which works on behalf of family and biblical values in California, especially among its lawmakers. "If you continue your efforts, we will BURY you," said an e-mail from Ben Patrick Johnson, to his "colleagues" at the CRI, according to a statement from the Christian organization. "For a group that purports to expand tolerance and civil rights, Equality California is not practicing what it preaches," CRI said.

"This type of language evokes images of Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the podium of the United Nations when he declared that Communism would bury America," said CRI. "The irony is not lost on us Communists squelch all opposing speech, just as the modern 'intolerance' movement seeks to silence all opposing viewpoints.

"Johnson then threatens 'we have every intention of yours [group] going down, as have others who oppose decency and human rights.' It is shameful that a group that represents itself as promoting tolerance and civil rights would stoop to the very tactics it accuses CRI of using. Not once has CRI personally attacked opponents in such a degrading and vicious manner," said the organization.

"In a video diatribe against CRI posted on his website, Johnson declares that CRI and its supporters are 'hate peddlers' and 'conservative, religious prejudice peddlers.' He further declares that we are 'smirky, self-righteous folks' who have 'launched an aggressive campaign against legislation to protect gay youth in California's and ultimately America's schools.'

This statement reveals not only the vitriolic language this supposed 'tolerance' group uses, but also the true agenda behind such legislation as SB 777. The radical homosexual agenda intends on sweeping the nation. California is merely the first step in the campaign to stifle free speech and stamp out opposition to 'alternative lifestyles,'" CRI said.

As WND has reported, SB 777 is a plan that would require all public schools in California to eliminate anything that could reflect "adversely" on the homosexual lifestyle choice. It could mean the words "mom" and "dad" would be banned. It's a plan the California Assembly approved a year ago, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. An earlier description of SB 777 from CRI noted that it "forcibly thrusts young school children into dealing with sexual issues, requiring that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality be taught in a favorable light."

"Pushing this radical homosexual agenda in California schools will stifle the truth in favor of political correctness and will inevitably conflict with the religious and moral convictions of both students and parents," said CRI Executive Director Karen England. "The full ramifications of this sweeping legislation could affect the entire nation as most textbook companies tailor their material to their number one purchaser: California."

A key point in the article was al-Maliki wrote a letter in January ordering commanders of the "Mahdi Army," who also have ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, be moved from Iraqi front lines where American and coalition troops were active, the MEMRI report said.

The "Mahdi Army" is the group of terrorists and fighters assembled by al-Sadr, who has preached Islam's "Madhi" soon is to return, and American forces invaded Iraq in order to capture and kill him. Al-Sadr has refused to disband the estimated 5,000-8,000 in his group because he claims it is the "Madhi's Army" and he cannot disband it, as other fighting factions in Iraq have been required to do.
The document, translated by MEMRI, said:

"Based on a phone conversation with Sayyid Muqtada Al-Sadr and [after] consulting with [Iraq's National Security Advisor] Dr. Muwafaq Al-Rubai'i, in order to preserve our great achievements and in light of what the present circumstances demand, we ask to temporarily conceal the commanders of the Mahdi Army, who are connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, [and to remove them] from the front line [of battle] in order to protect them from being arrested or killed by the American forces. [The names of the commanders] are listed below. It would be best to send them to Iran for the time being, until the crisis passes.

"In addition, [we ask] to send the commanders from the second line [of battle] to the southern regions, since we know that intensive efforts are underway to persuade the Americans to leave the situation [there] as it is. All administrative and security arrangements for the transportation of these commanders have [already] been made.

"We ask you to implement [these orders] and report to us.

"[Signed,] Nouri Al-Maliki, Prime Minster (sic) [of Iraq]"

Al-Maliki, who visited President George Bush in the White House in 2006, said then those who advocate violence were being addressed.

"I would like to assure the political and religious leaders and civil societies that the Iraqi parties, politicans, religious leaders are rising to their responsibility and are condemning those who are cooperating with al-Qaida and those who are trying to start a civil war," he said.

Al-Sadr has been described as a fiercely anti-U.S. cleric who commands the Madhi Army, blamed with multiple bloody battles against U.S.-led troops in recent months.

Addressing the Second Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, yesterday, Chen Deming, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that China has a huge potential to exploit its abundant domestic energy resources.

"China is not only a major energy consumer, but also a giant energy producer," said Chen, who is head of the Chinese delegation. He said the country has abundant coal reserves and bright prospects to develop hydroelectricity, wind power, solar energy and bioenergy. It also has the potential to increase its oil production and its exploration for natural gas, Chen said.

Chen also dismissed claims that the country had been a major factor in the increasing global oil price, although it did need to import a certain amount of oil and natural gas to supplement its energy supplies. The unstable regional situation, fund speculation and natural disasters are the main factors behind the abnormal rise of the oil price, he said.

Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, and her Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, had a chance encounter yesterday which symbolised the state of relations between their two countries.Both had signalled their willingness to meet at a summit on Iraq's future in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

This would have been the first formal contact between the two countries at foreign minister level since diplomatic ties were severed almost 28 years ago when an Iranian mob held 66 US diplomats hostage in the Teheran embassy. Instead, Miss Rice and Mr Mottaki found themselves seated near to each other during a lunch break in the Egyptian conference centre.

Given that President George W Bush has branded Iran a pillar of the "Axis of Evil" - retaliating for years of Iranian abuse on the theme of America as the "Great Satan" - this might have been an awkward moment.
But Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, saw the pair exchange some "welcoming remarks". Like the countries they represent, they were unable to avoid one another and also unable or unwilling to bridge the gulf between them. Mr Zebari, who has been playing a mediating role between the two sides, said: "I believe that an in-depth, bilateral meeting between the two here is not a high possibility."

But he laid out the key reason why America and Iran both have an interest in dialogue. Iraq's chaos is developing into a foreign policy catastrophe for Miss Rice and a significant headache for Iran. Teheran is willing to stir the violence by arming Shia militias - but still fears the consequences of anarchy on its western border.

Mr Zebari predicted that Miss Rice and Mr Mottaki would meet in the weeks ahead. "The tension is too high. Everybody has pushed the envelope to the limit. That is why there is an impetus to look at some regional, collective action to stabilise the situation," he said. But Miss Rice did meet Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, in the first encounter between the countries at this level for two years. US officials say the country has begun stemming the flow of fighters crossing the border into Iraq.

Iraq also appealed to its neighbours to cancel its debts "to enable it to start reconstruction", said Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister. Iraq owes Saudi Arabia, the biggest creditor, £8.5 billion but the kingdom has quietly agreed to cancel 80 per cent of this sum.

The media on both continents naturally blame the Bush Administration for the breach; but there is no doubt that ex-Chancellor Schroeder and outgoing President Jacques Chirac exploited and worsened policy differences for their own political gain. Their aim was to separate Europe from America, in order to build up their own power by way of the European Union.

Chirac was scheming to become the first full-term president of the EU. Schroeder kept his office by scapegoating the Bush Administration. The EU Constitution was supposed to carry it all over the top, and the European Union was supposed to sail into everlasting paradise. Breaking away from America was the key.
Both Merkel and Sarkozy are "welfare-state conservatives" rather than ideologically pure socialists.

They can see clearly the suicidal limits of the multiculti Left, particularly its support for uncontrollable millions of anti-Western migrants, fresh dependent voters for the welfare state. They also see the looming fiscal limits of the social welfare state, as the Euro Boomer generation retires while a host of poorer nations are joining the European Union. Those nations cannot get the massive handouts that were routinely channeled to France. The money isn't there. The word "cynical" and "immoral" were used by Sarkozy recently to describe the Boomer Left. Europe's vacation from reality is reaching its natural limits, and public opinion is sobering up fast.

Most important, Europe can no longer deny the Islamist threat. The War on Terror isn't just George W. Bush's private phantasmagoria any more. Nicolas Sarkozy as French Minister of Interior has had to deal with two years of nightly riots by thousands of ethnic Muslim adolescents. The rioters are French citizens and cannot be expelled. They are not devout Muslims, but rather classically alienated young males who are easy prey for jihadist propaganda --- just as alienated young men were natural recruits for absolutist ideologies in previous generations.

Islam, Communism and fascism provide much the same kind of gratification. Islamists view women as either family chattel or whores to be preyed on; there are no free, respectable women in their eyes. So they are imbued with very different values from their middle-class European peers. Smaller versions of the French riots have erupted in the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. Germans fear a spread of anarchy to their own Muslim population.

The link between terror and nuclear threats is now undeniable. Nobody doubts what Ahmadinejad wants --- since he repeats it in public at every opportunity. London newspapers have reported "dirty nuke" terror plots that were stopped in time. But it is not a comforting bit of news. Even the UK Guardian is beginning to see the writing on the wall.

Europeans are aware of the spread of nuclear technology from Pakistan and North Korea to Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Today Paris is only fifteen minutes away from an Iranian ICBM attack. That threat will not materialize until Iran obtains nukes, but that may be only a matter of time.

Angela Merkel was visibly shocked by Ahmadinejad's open threats of a nuclear Holocaust against Israel last year. She has signaled very clearly that Germany takes the Iranian threat very seriously. While Jacques Chirac still believed that France could buy off Middle East tyrants, Nicolas Sarkozy seems to be more grounded in reality. Europe, in blissful pursuit of the fantasy of eternal peace and prosperity without having to even pay for its own defenses, may return to realism in Paris and Berlin.

Bottom line: We are beginning to see a reconstruction of the Western alliance after a decade of unprecedented propaganda attacks from the European Left. That does not mean that Europe will be subservient to the US as it was in the 1950s and 60s. Europe will try to stay neutral in any nuclear standoff between the US and Iran, even though it also wants to be protected against Iranian blackmail.

Ideally, Europe wishes to control America as its own foreign legion; but Americans would be fools not to demand commensurate contributions from the 450 million people of Europe. Today Europe pays less than half of what we do for defense, but they still expect to be protected by us. That is an exploitive and one-sided arrangement. France and Germany must do much more for the common defense.

Nevertheless, the fact is that Europeans do not trust themselves to exercise a muscular foreign policy in the Middle East. If German fighter jets bombed Iran or Iraq, ancient European fears of a revived Prussianism or Hitlerism would arise automatically, justified or not. The US can simply do things Germany will not be able to do for the foreseeable future.

And nobody trusts the French not to be cynically self-serving. In spite of anti-American rage, therefore, in military affairs Europe reluctantly trusts the US and Britain more than it does itself. It seems that Europe's peace-now-and-forever fantasies will be postponed in the coming decades, as the West engages in a more cohesive struggle for survival against nuclear Islamist threats. There is no alternative.

Europe imports far too much oil from the Gulf to evade the obvious: A vital need for a renewed alliance with the United States against totalitarian aggressors with strategic weapons.

Call it Cold War Two --- if we are lucky and keep our wits. But we must expect continental Europe to play a more active and constructive role for its own defense than it did in the last sixty years

A virulent strain of tuberculosis resistant to most available drugs is surfacing around the globe, raising fears of a pandemic that could devastate efforts to contain TB and prove deadly to people with immune-deficiency diseases such as HIV-AIDS.

Known formally as extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, the strain has been detected in 37 countries. It arises when the bacterium that causes TB mutates because antibiotics used to combat it are carelessly administered by poorly trained doctors or patients don't take their full course of medication. Rather than being killed by the drugs, the microbe builds up resistance to them.

At least 50 percent of those who contract this strain of TB will die of it, according to medical experts. In trying to stop the spread of the disease, which can be transmitted through coughing, spitting or even speaking, health officials have imposed sometimes extreme controls on infected people.

At least 50 percent of those who contract this strain of TB will die of it, according to medical experts. In trying to stop the spread of the disease, which can be transmitted through coughing, spitting or even speaking, health officials have imposed sometimes extreme controls on infected people.

U.S. security officials are deeply concerned at the ease with which young Britons who have trained in Pakistani terror camps can enter America under the visa-waiver programme. Their concerns were heightened this week when five men, most of whom were Britons of Pakistani descent, were jailed for life for terrorism offences.

U.S. officials point out that any members of the two terror cells would have been able to enter the U.S. as holidaymakers using the visa-waiver system. Michael Chertoff, the U.S. homeland security chief, believes it is unacceptable that Britons can enter his country without a visa while Pakistani citizens have to undergo rigorous screening to obtain one.

He is holding talks with British officials aimed at closing the "loophole". Among the options on the table in the talks between Britain and the U.S. was the total scrapping of the waiver programme, the New York Times reported yesterday.

It said another option would be to single out Britons of Pakistani origin, requiring them to make visa applications for the U.S. and to declare details of visits to Pakistan. Each applicant would also have to undergo a face-to-face interview at a U.S. embassy.

British officials have told the U.S. this would lead to a bitter backlash from civil liberties campaigners. It would also cause considerable embarrassment to Tony Blair, particularly as the majority of the British Pakistani community - which is some 800,000-strong - has traditionally voted Labour.

A British Embassy official in Washington said the visa-waiver programme was valuable and London would oppose moves to scrap it. But he insisted Britain would not accept any special restrictions on British citizens of Pakistani heritage.

A State Department spokesman said the U.S. would "do what we can" to stop the visawaiver system being abused, but would not comment on whether it might be scrapped. A British anti-terror investigator said yesterday: "We fully understand and share America's concerns. "The potential threat is obvious and the British passport provides Al Qaeda operatives with the chance of entering into the heartland of their greatest declared enemy with relative ease. It poses a real problem."

In a statement on the constitution's 60th anniversary, Mr Abe spoke of the need for a "new era" to allow Japan to take a larger role in global security. Mr Abe, who came to office last year, has made revising the constitution one of his main priorities. But critics in South Korea and China, which suffered at the hands of Japanese wartime forces, oppose the move.

Many pacifist elements also remain within Japan, and opinion polls show the public has mixed views about Mr Abe's aims. Mr Abe said in a statement that he wanted to work "towards a Japan that instils confidence and pride among its children". His stance is part of efforts to make Japan more assertive on the world stage, with a military able to take part in peacekeeping missions overseas.

The current constitution has already been stretched, allowing the country to have a self-defence force. Under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, this was pushed still further, to allow troops to join peacekeeping missions in Iraq

Critics of the proposed changes say the pacifist constitution has kept Japan out of war since the 1940s, allowing it to avoid the militarism of the early 20th Century and focus on economic growth instead.